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San Francisco TV Station Punked on Asiana Pilot Names

RUSH: Oh, yeah. If you go to Twitter, if you go to Facebook -- hell, if you go to comments, anywhere -- "It's so racist! It's just offensive as it can be. I can't believe people actually thought these were real." I can just see these little people in their pajamas writing these comments on Twitter over what happened on KTVU Channel 2 (I think it's Channel 2) in Oakland, in the Bay Area.

It's a Fox affiliate, and that probably ticked 'em off even more. You had this clueless infobabe. I mean, folks, I hope you've had a chance to actually see this, because the look on the anchor's face, the infobabe's face, after she reads the copy is priceless. I mean, they've got a graphic up there. Ostensibly the airline released the names of the flight crew, and they've got these names -- and, by the way, the NTSB approved this!

The apparent release came from the National Transportation Safety Board. So it had the imprimatur of government sanction. Of course they blame an intern in there, probably somebody in Cincinnati. So they have this graphic with all of the names of the flight crew on the Asiana flight, the accident in San Francisco, and the infobabe obviously did not proofread or pre-read any of the copy.

She was just gonna see what's on the prompter for the first time, and she's reading these names, and the look on her face after she reads the copy illustrates she was probably reading it for the first time. Imagine a TV screen filled with a big blue graphic with the chyron names bigger than usual. You have a big screen, and they're up there -- I mean, they're huge. The chief pilot was "Sum Ting Wong," three names. The copilot, "Wi Tu Lo."

The next one I can't say. It's got an F-bomb. But they put it up there. It was on the screen "Ho Lee..." (laughing) F-u-k. On the screen! And the woman's reading it. The anchor's reading it. The final name was "Bang Ding Ow." I'm telling you, the reading of this with all solemnity and so forth in addition to seeing it, makes this what it is. So somebody pulled a great, great prank here. Ah, it reminded me of some of my greats, some of the things that I have done in my earlier broadcast career.

I'm a little jealous that somebody was able to pull this off. This was aired just after noon local time. The station read a statement later in the broadcast, "Earlier in the newscast we gave some names of the pilots involved in the Asiana Airlines crash. These names were not accurate despite an NTSB official in Washington confirming them late this morning. We apologize for the error."

And then the NTSB released a statement confirming that an intern confirmed the names of the flight crew to KTVU Channel 2 in Oakland. "The National Transportation Safety Board apologizes for inaccurate and mistaken names that were mistakenly confirmed as those of the pilots..." (laughing) I can't read this with a straight face. I see this, and I can't believe it. Is this not a great illustration of how dumbed down news is? (interruption) No, she knew. You can see it on her face.

That's why they call these people "newsreaders." They're not journalists, not reporters. They're newsreaders. It's the reading of the prompter, and she's reading it. I mean, when she saw it on the prompter, it didn't make any big impression. When she hears herself saying these things, the third name -- when she got to Ho Lee F-u-k -- I think that's probably when the light went off that something here wasn't right.

(interruption)

Oh, yeah, Obama woulda read this. Yeah, he woulda read the prompter straight -- and somebody, some intern in Cincinnati would have been canned.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, folks, Asiana Airlines announced today that they're gonna sue KTVU Eyeball News 2 in Oakland. Asiana Airlines is gonna sue the TV station because they say it damaged the airline's reputation by using bogus and racially offensive names for four pilots on a plane that crashed in San Francisco. Now, we've got audio of the infobabe reciting this, and I'm gonna play the audio for you. Again, we will link to the video at RushLimbaugh.com in case you haven't seen it. But here's the audio. The infobabe is Tori Campbell, KTVU Eyeball News 2, a Fox affiliate in the Bay Area.

CAMPBELL: We have new information now also on the plane crash. KTVU has just learned the names of the four pilots who were on board the flight. They are Captain Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk, and Bang Ding Ow. The NTSB has confirmed these are the names of the pilots on board Flight 214 when it crashed. We are working to determine exactly what roles each of them played during the landing on Saturday.

RUSH: So... (laughing) So Channel 2 was "working to determine exactly what roles" Sum Ting Wong played during the landing, what role Wi Tu Lo played, what role Ho Lee Fuk played, and what role Bang Ding Ow played in and during the landing on Saturday. It's priceless, the look on her face when she realizes that she's been punked. It's priceless. Here, let's play this again 'cause it's worth it. Here's the replay...

(replaying of sound bite)

What did you do when you first saw this before you had heard or seen the video? When you just saw those names printed the first time you did, what was your reaction? You knew immediately? It mighta taken you a second. "Wait a minute! Sum Ting Wong?" But it didn't take you long to figure it out here. Then you realized what happened, and you got the utter disbelief flowing. She's obviously not a highly trained broadcast specialist.

But they're just newsreaders.

If it's on a prompter, that's news -- and that's what was on the prompter, and so that's what's in the news.